At The Outside World
A short story created by Super High School Level Despair Ninjas, focusing on Touhou!Zane and his brief interaction in the Outside World. Do not edit without permission from author. Author's first time writing fan fiction. Advice and criticism are welcomed. Warning: Mention of drinking, character goes meta. This fic is purely work of fiction. Any names that share similarities with a real life person is coincidental. Story For the longest time, he wouldn’t have dream of going anywhere outside Ninjago. But now, with his newfound ability of manipulating boundaries, he can go into different places he never seen before. Bless Yukari for allowing him to go to the Outside World. “You should see things that you didn't know exist,” she said. For someone as strict as the boundary youkai like her, this is a generous offer. So now, in a bar somewhere in what they called as “the USA”, sits a man in an outlandish outfit not fitting for everyday wear but can pass up as a cosplay costume. “One A.M.F. cocktail please,” he orders at the bartender. Said bartender looks at him with a wary look. “Are you sure, sir? That’s one of the strongest cocktail in the city! You’ll get a heavy hangover!” exclaim the bartender. “It’s fine. I’d like to try it anyway. The thrill of tasting a new drink would make up any hangover for me,” reassure the man. He’s not afraid of any hangover, for he’s a nindroid, a robot. Robots can’t get hangover, can they? The bartender gives a defeated sigh and says “Very well then, sir” then goes to make said drink. He seems to notice that the man observing the way he makes the beverage to the t. He thinks the man’s probably bored so he strikes up a friendly conversation. “So, what’s your name, sir? I’m Roberto Caipiroska” “Zane… Yakumo. My parent’s an immigrant,” the one who’s being asked answers. There’s a hesitation in his tone when he introduce himself. “An immigrant? That explains the weird last name! Japs?” Roberto the bartender says, understanding the hesitated tone. Zane just slowly nods his head at the question. Gensokyo’s technically part of Japan, right? Truth to be told, he could’ve just go with his actual family name Julien, but he ain’t risking the weird glances the people often give him when he introduced himself as Zane Julien. “Isn’t that a cartoon character’s name?”, “The one from that LEGO show?”, “Are you that white guy from that LEGO movie? What’s it called again? LEGO Ninjago?” they’ll say such either in disbelief, jokingly, or mockingly. Almost in that order. His look doesn’t help either. He does look eerily similar to his…. Ahem Minifigure counterpart, at least before the redesign one shows up. Nevertheless, his outfit hides who he really is. The outfit that some people disdainly call as “a poor attempt on cosplaying Ran Yakumo”. Everything in Gensokyo are fiction to the Outside World and vice versa, Yukari once said. Zane should’ve known better that the same rule applies to the relationship of Ninjago and the Outside World, with the difference is that Ninjago doesn’t even aware what Outside World is. Maybe he shouldn’t created the Great Ninjago Barrier after all…. A tall glass of blue drink suddenly comes into the nindroid’s view. “Your drink, sir!” says Roberto as he serves the A.M.F. drink to Zane. The latter mutter a thank you before sipping it through the straw. He instantly cringes at the taste. “God, it taste awful!” he thinks. “And it’s strong too! No wonder humans get a heavy hangover from this thing! What’s in there? Who invented this drink? Why am I thinking this is a good idea?!” Roberto looks at the nindroid with a concerned look in his face, clearly noticing his struggle with the drink. Zane give him a half-hearted smile as he strained to say, “It taste fine….” After a full hour of struggling to drink the beverage, Zane pays the bill (“Do you accept Yen?”) and leaves the bar, regretting his decision to drank a strong alcoholic liquor. “Maybe I’ll try to drink something tamer next time…” he mutters to himself as he caresses his chest, trying to soothe the awful taste in his throat. As he walks along the block, he passes a toy shop. He would’ve give it no mind if not for a certain toy sets being displayed on the window display. He stops on his track and looks at them. Bunch of LEGO sets, some of them are from the City series, some are from the DC Super Heroes line. The one that fixated his interest, however, are the one under the Ninjago line. Most of them are from the latest season series Hands of Time, but there are some that’s under an upcoming season Sons of Garmadon, a few from the Rebooted and Skybound seasons (seems to be fan favorites, at least around this area), and some spinners. On the window glass, a big 50% discount plastered in a big black bold font within an equally big yellow circle sticker. His curiosity leads him to want to buy a set, but he remembers he only got 20 Dollars worth of Japanese Yen (around 2241 Yen) allowance from Yukari and he already spent around 15 Dollars worth for drinking. Sighing in defeat, he can only stares the sets behind the glass window. He can’t believe what happened in his former life as a White Ninja of Ice just happens to be part of some kids show based on kids building block toys. He can’t shakes the peculiarity of the situation. All of his life and death struggle were nothing but some entertainment behind the screen watched by million pairs of eyes in this bizarre world that is known as the Outside World. Then again, who is he to judge. At least he got some benefits from it, having some “fangirls” outside of his usual circle. A thought occurred to him. He just realized now that his involvement in any of Gensokyo’s incidents doesn’t seem to be recorded, according to any Touhou medias being released so far, which he finds peculiar. So is the lack of his closest friends Kaimu, Royodo, Koichi, and Jai being mentioned anywhere. Didn’t whatever happened in Gensokyo would eventually be recorded as either game, novel book, or manga in the Outside World? That’s how it usually operates but this one tingles his interest the most. Suddenly, someone bumps him from behind, resulting on him and the other person to fall forward. Papers spill on the hard concrete pavement. “Waaaaaahhhhhh-!!!! I’m sorry! I didn’t look where am I going!!” Exclaims the person that bumped him. As he feels the weight behind his back lighten, he sits up and looks at the culprit. A girl of high school age, in school uniform (“didn’t know the USA has school uniform too. Aren’t they usually wear whatever they want?”), long black flowing hair, and a glasses resting on her nose. “It’s fine. I probably zoned out myself earlier there…” he says as he dust himself standing. He can feel the girl’s gaze resting on him intensely. He looks at the girl and raises an eyebrow. “Is something wrong?” he asks. The girl suddenly snaps from her intense gaze and looks at him, pointing at his outfit, jumping a little excitedly. “That! That costume! It’s the same as my character’s outfit! Did you see it some on the internet? Tumblr? DeviantArt? Is that costume store bought or you customize it yourself? How did-” Before she continues rambling, Zane holds his hand up to calm her down. “Whoa there! Slow down! You said about my clothes is the same as your character’s outfit? Umm, may I know who it is?” “Sure! It should be around here…” she says as she begins to collect her spilled papers. Zane waits patiently as she does so (he offered to help but she refused to) before she finally satisfied with her findings and holds out a piece of paper, giving to Zane. “Here it is! It’s not really an original character though… basically just a crossover character.” He takes the paper and looks at the picture drawn on it. His eyes goes wide, for what he sees is exactly him down to the signature Yakumo tabard and the symbols on it. Behind the drawn person is an opened gap, with two ice symbol tying each sides of the gap and the blue eyes peering out of it against a navy blue background. His opened boundary. Beside it is written in a dark blue colored pencil, “Zane Yakumo Julien, Nindroid Gap Youkai and Former Ninja of Ice”. “I don’t really know if it’s that good or not, my drawing is… But I personally like how he turns out!” the girl said excitedly. Zane stares at the drawing in disbelief before composing himself. Well, that explains one thing. Outside World do operates in its strange way. He returns the paper to the girl and says between his tiny smile, “It’s a good picture. You have a talent to be an artist with this.” The girl’s eyes lit up at his statement. “Really?! I can be an artist?!” Zane gives her a sure nods at that. The girl then jumps excitedly again and then hugs him. “Oh, thank you, good sir! Being an artist is always my dream!” Apparently she remembers something as she backs out and looks at Zane sheepishly, scratching her head as her eyes dart to the road. “So, ummm…. How did you know that costume? Or is it just a mere coincidence?” “I… Found it on the internet. I don’t really remember the website, though. It feels like a lifetime ago since I found it,” he decides to lie to humor the girl. She wouldn’t believe he’s the actual White Ninja of Ice that died and resurrected into a gap youkai, would she? The girl smiles and takes his hand into a handshake. “I’m so happy! Now the world will know that crossover cosplay is possible! I can’t wait to tell my friends about this! What’s your name, sir? I’ll make sure to keep in contact with you if possible.” Having his name being called out blatantly on the drawing, he stammers to make up a good name at her. In the end, he settles to introduce himself as Michael Roberts. She once again thanks him and introduce herself as Ichka before storming off happily, waving at Zane and saying goodbye at him with him waving back. He strolls the the pavement some more, contemplating what just happened to him today. Definitely would visit the Outside World again someday. But now he must go back to Gensokyo. Yukari must’ve expecting him. Not to mention Ran had told him to pick up Chen at the Human Village earlier this morning. As he takes a turn to an alley, a blue gap opens in the middle of it. He enters it before he wills it to disappear, erasing any trace of his visit in the Outside World. Category:Fanfictions Category:Completed Stories Category:Short Stories